Roll grinding machine



1952 P. H. HUTCHINSON ROLL GRINDING MACHINE 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 Filed June 24, 1947 W Fig-3 522 HE Fig. 4

P. H. HUTCHINSON ROLL GRINDING MACHINE Dec. 30, 1952 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 Filed June 24, 1947 Patented Dec. 30, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROLL GRINDING MACHINE ration of New Jersey Application June .24, 1947, Serial No. 756,707

9 Claims.

This invention relates to roll grinding machines and comprises all of the features of novelty herein disclosed. An object of the invention is to provide an improved machine for grinding the opposite ends of articles, such as cylindrical or barrel-shaped rollers, so that those ends will lie in planes perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the articles. Another object is to provide an end grinding machine constructed to advance articles therethrough in a continuous stream or solid column with adjacent rollers pressed against each other sidewise thus tending to hold each other perpendicular to the abrasive surfaces. Another object is to provide an end grinding machine wherein the articles are capable of high speed change of direction for introduction and advance along a guideway extending between abrasive wheels.

To these ends and also to improve generally upon machines of this character, the invention consists in the various matters hereinafter described and claimed. In its broader aspects the invention is not necessarily limited to the specific construction selected for illustrative purposes in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. l is a side elevation of a portion of the machine.

Fig. 2 is an end view, partly in section of a feed lever and associated parts.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the lever.

Fig. 4 is an end view of the exit guideway.

Fig. 5 is an end view, with parts broken away and in section, of the entrance end of the machine, some parts being omitted.

Fig. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a plan view, partly insection, of a friction wheel and associated parts.

Fig. 8 is an end view, to reduced scale, of a supporting standard.

Fig. 9 is a side view of Fig. 8. a

Fig. 10 is a plan view, to reduced scale, of certain important elements diagrammatically arranged.

Fig. 11 is a side view of Fig. 10, the near wheel being removed.

Fig. 12 is a fragmentary view in cross section and illustrating the grinding of barrel shaped rollers.

Referring first to important functions, the articles to be end ground, such as cylindrical or barrel shaped rollers, are urged endwise in a feed tube, accelerated therein by an air jet to quickly advance the endmost roller against a stop. plate, the roller then being pushed sidewise by an oscillatin finger into a long guidewayextending between parallel abrasive wheels. The guideway is somewhat displaced from the wheel centers and the wheels turn in a direction to resist entry of the rollers. A notched feed wheel overlies the guideway to engage the rollers and is frictionally driven to advance the rollers against the backward thrust of the abrasive wheels, the oppositely acting forces pressing adjacent rollers against one another and making a continuous stream or solid column which insures that all rollers will pass between the wheels with their axes perpendicular thereto. The notched feed wheel turns at such speed that its successive notches come into action faster than the oscillating pusher introduces rollers into the guideway. The notched wheel can yield upward- 1y or be swung upwardly in case the rollers jam and a detent in the guideway then prevents retreat of the rollers which are being urged to retreat by the abrasive wheels.

The work pieces W are herein shown as cylindrical rollers whose length exceeds the diameter. Such rollers can best be fed out of a supply hopper endwise instead of sidewise. The feeding mechanism (not shown) urges the rollers endwise in a stream through an entrance tube having air jets to accelerate the rollers and then the rollers have their direction changed to sidewise travel for end grinding between spaced, parallel grinding wheels G (Figs. 1, 10 and 11) while confined between a lower guide rail 2 and an upper guide rail 8. The entrance tube 6 (Figs. 1, 5 and 6) is secured in a housing 8 mounted on an upright lug of a vertically adjustable angle bracket 9. Air under pressure is admitted through a pipe in to an annular groove [2 in the tube. From the annular groove the air is forced through slanting ports I 4 to accelerate the rollers and .drive the endmost roller quickly against a stop plate or rear guide It which is secured by screws in a horizontal groove ISA (Figs. 8 and 9) formed in a pad ISB on a narrow vertical standard [8.

The upper and lower guide rails 4 and 2 extend between and beyond the grinding wheels while the rear guide is extends up close to the grinding wheels, another rear guide plate 20 (Figs. 4.- and 10) beginning at the exit end of the wheels. In front of the rollers and extending from the feed tube to the grinding wheels is a front guide plate 22 (Figs. 1 and 5) having upper and lower convex ribs 24, the lower rib acting as a fulcrum on the guide rail 2, so that the plate is subject to tilting adjustment laterally by adjusting screws 25, the adjustment depending on the length of the rollers and being maintained by set screws 28. Guide plate 22 is cut out at intervals to provide access to the screws which secured the lower guide rail 2 in vertically adjusted position on the standard. Beyond the grinding wheels (Figs. 4 and 10) a similar front guide plate 30 is mounted for tilting adjustment in a similar manner on the lower guide rail 2.

The end of the upper guide rail 4 has arcuate surfaces 32 conforming closely to the periphery of spaced apart, notched flanges o-na frictionally driven wheel 34, .a central fin or stripper 36 extending between the flanges and nearly meeting the pointed end of a short auxiliary or entrance guide 33. A rapidly oscillating transfer .finger 40 forces each roller under the guide 33 towards the notched wheel which controls the sidewise advance of the rollers in a continuous stream along the guideway and between the wheels. Retrograde movement of the rollers while between the wheels is positively limited by a detent 4! pivoted in a recess of the upper guide rail 4.

The wheel 34 (Fig. 7) is piloted on a flange of a driven shaft 42 and engages a. collar 44 towards which the wheel is urged by a .friction disc 46, coil springs 48 being interposed between the'disc and studs i! which pass through the disc and are threaded in thefiange. The shaft-4.2 is journalled on ball bearings in a housing 52 which is formed on the free end of an arm 54 whose opposits end is forked to provide spaced lugs 53 rockable on .a :fixed sleeve '58. The sleeve :is .secured by a set screw in the bore of a bracket '50 fastened to the front edge of the standard I8. The arm Ell carries :a vertical adjusting screw 52 which :rests on the top of the standard and limits downward movement .of 'the'wheel. On the top of the arm 54 is fastened an extension arm '6 having an arcuate depression engaged by a roller '66 ona spring-pressed plunger .33 urged downwardlyfbya coil spring housed in a casing formed on a bent bracket '12 whose lower end is pivoted between ears on a screw stud 14 threaded in ther'topof the standard. The wheel 34 can thus yield upwardly in case of a jamming of the rollers or it can be swung upwardly out of the way to expose the guideway after swinging the bracket 12 clockwise to release it.

To drive the wheel 34, its shaft 52 is pinned to the flangedhub 73 of a pulley "l8 driven'by-a belt 80 extending around a smaller pulley 82 on a shaft 84 journalled in ball bearings 86 housed in the sleeve 58, a seal closing one end of the sleeve and a cap 68 closing the other end. On the same shaft with the pulley 82 is a much larger pulley 99 driven by a belt 92 extending upwardly from a small pulley Q4 on the shaft of a motor 93 which is mounted on the front of the'standard. The motor shaft projects through an opening 97 in the standard and carries a second pulley 58 which drives a pulley "I00 on a cam shaft IE2 which is journa'lled in ball bearings in a flanged housing I05. The housing IE6 is contained within a hollow boss I 68 on the standard and is secured to the boss by screws. One end of the housing is closedbya cap and the other end is covered by a flanged annular'member IIll mounted on the cam shaft III-2 for rotation therewith.

A cam member H2 is splined to the shaft I92 and is normally held against a shoulder thereof by a spring-pressed ball detent I I4. The cam member can be slid endwise along the shaft as far as permitted by a headed stop screw IIfi threaded in the end of the shaft. The cam member has an 'arcuate idle portion merging with a cam projection I18 arranged to engage a cam roll I journalled in an arm 122 whose hub is journalled'on a shouldered stud I24 secured to a boss I on the standard. The arm I 22 is part of a rocking lever 28 having a post I33 connected by a spring I32 to an anchor post I33 on the standard. Thus the cam roll is urged against the cam. The :rockable lever has a longitudinal pivoted on a pin I38 carried by the lever.

channel I34 :t treceive an independently :movable arm I whose lower end is laterally ofiset and The arm normally bottoms in the channel and is held there by a spring I49 interposed between a washer engaging the arm and a washer engaging :an adjusting nut on a stud I42 which passes through a vertical slot in the arm and is threaded in the rockablelever. The above mentioned transfer finger 4B is clamped in adjusted position'at the top of the arm I 36 and is oscillated by the cam. The arm can yield about its pivot if the rollers jam in front of the transfer finger.

At the end of a run when no more rollers are supplied from the feed tube 6, the cam member I I2 can be slid out of the plane of the roll 120' thus allowing the "rockable lever I 28 to swing counterclockwise as far as permitted by the anchor post I33. This exposes the roller .guideway s that the rollers remaining therein can be pushed along by amanually actuated rod. When barrel shapedtroll'ers as distinguished :from cylindrical rollers are to be ground, the work .engag ing :edges of the :guide rails "are curved crosswise to fit the rollers.

'In operation, the rollers near the end of the feed tube '6 are accelerated by the air jets, the enchnost roller iznpinging against the stop plate or rear guide It and then being advanced sidewise along the guideway by the rapidly oscillating transfer finger 43. The oscillation or the finger (which oscillates in practice over five times per second) determines the output of themachine although the frictionally driven wheel '34 tends to accelerate the rollers because its successive notches come into the'lowest position faster'than the rollers reach it. The guideway has its axisabove the center of the abrasive wheels G which turn anticlockwise in Fig. 11 and accordingly a thrust component resists advance of the rollers and tends to make them retreat. The friction at the driven wheel is adjusted to overcome this resistance and the opposing forces urge the 'adjacent rollers into sidewise pressure contact with each other, thus insuring a continuous stream or solid column wherein all rollers are held with. their axes perpendicular to the abrasive surfaces as they advance. Since "the oscillating finger does not supply rollers as fast as the friction wheel can advance them, actual advance of the stream or column from the friction wheel is intermittent. The detent 4| prevents retreat of the rollers in the machine especially when the friction wheel is swung upwardly as to clear the guideway.

Otherwise stated, the'pusher determinesthe output of the machine because no more rollers can come out than go in. As a roller reaches an'otch of the fast rotating friction wheel 34 from the pusher, the roller is accelerated by the wheel and a gap in rollers may occur behind it. When the machine is in full operation, a solid column of pressed-together rollers persists between the grinding zone and one of the notches of the friction wheel beyond the center. Asthe wheel rotates, the notch (or the'tooth between it and the following notch) rises above the last roller and releases it. If the following notch is empty due to'the above mentioned gap, the grinding wheels may shift the column of rollers backwardly a very little depending on the position of the detent H but the next fast-advancing notch or tooth immediately engages that released roller and advances the column to its original position. Ulti mately, depending on the relative speeds of the pusher and the rotating friction wheel, another roller will reach the solid column and be pushed into it, the whole column thus being advanced the distance of one roller diameter. It is thus not essential that the speed of the pusher be synchronized with the advance of the notches. The very short backward movement of the column which may occur is beneficial rather than detrimental.

What is claimed is: i

1. In a grinding machine, a pair of parallel abrasive wheels rotatable about a common axis, a guideway extending between the wheels to guide a stream of contacting articles therethrough, the guideway being displaced from the common axis; of the wheels, mechanism to rotate the wheels downwardly against the entering stream of articles, said rotating wheels producing against the articles an opposing thrust which resists the advance of the articles between the abrasive wheels, a reciprocating member for successively advancing new articles into the guideway, a frictionally driven wheel having peripheral notches entering the guideway to receive the inserted articles, and mechanism driving the frictionally driven wheel at a rate to advance said articles along the guideway faster than they are delivered to it by said reciprocating member.

2. In a grinding machine, a pair of parallel abrasive wheels having a common axis of rotation, a guideway extending towards and between the wheels and displaced from said common axis to guide a stream of contacting articles into and through the space between said wheels, mechanism to rotate the grinding wheels in the same direction and towards the articles entering therebetween, said rotating wheels exerting a thrust component resisting the advance of the articles therebetween, a frictionally driven Wheel having notches which receive the articles and advance them in opposition to the thrust component of the abrasive wheels, a reciprocating member for advancing a new article into the guideway, and a locking member engageable with said articles in the guideway and preventing retreat of the articles.

3. In a grinding machine, a pair of spaced abrasive wheels, a guideway extending between the wheels to guide a stream of articles therethrough, a wheel having notches open towards the guideway to receive articles as they pass along the guideway, means for frictionally driving the wheel to exert a forward thrust on the articles, and a detent in the guideway between the frictionally driven wheel and the abrasive wheels to prevent retreat of the articles.

4. In a grinding machine, a pair of spaced abrasive wheels, a guideway extending between the wheels to guide a stream of articles therethrough, a wheel having notches open towards the guideway to receive articles as they pass along the guideway, means for frictionally driving the wheel to exert a forward thrust on the articles.-

urging it towards the guideway, a member at the entrance and of the guideway, and means for reciprocating the member to intermittently ad vance the articles to the notches.

6. In a grinding machine, a pair of spaced abrasive wheels, a guideway extending between the wheels to guide a stream of articles therethrough, a lever, a cam for reciprocating the lever, a pusher carried by the lever and adapted to enter the entrance end of the guideway to advance articles towards the wheels, and means for moving the cam out of engagement with the lever to enable the lever to swing the pusher away from the entrance end of the guideway.

7. In a grinding machine, a pair of spaced abrasive wheels, a guideway extending between the wheels to guide a stream of articles therethrough, a lever, a cam for reciprocating the lever, an arm pivoted to the lever, a spring for yieldably' holding the arm against the lever, and a pusher mounted on the arm and adapted to enter the entrance end of the guideway to advance the articles towards the wheels.

8. In a grinding machine, a pair of spaced abrasive wheels, a guideway comprising upper and lower rails extending between and beyond the wheels, a rear guide extending along the guideway as far as the wheels, a tiltable front guideplate opposed to the rear guide and having a. rounded rib at one edge bearing on one of the guide rails, and means for tilting the front guide plate around the rib to establish the spacing of the other edge from the rear guide.

9. In a grinding machine, a pair of spaced grinding wheels between which articles are passed in a stream, an entrance tube for guiding elongated articles endwise, a track crossing the end of the tube and in alignment with the space between the wheels to guide the articles sidewise thereto, a transfer finger rapidly reciprocated across the end of the tube to change the direction of the article travel from endwise to sidewise to advance articles sidewise along the track, the entrance tube having an annular groove and ports slanting from the groove to the bore, and means for con ducting fluid pressure to the groove to accelerate articles in the bore and move the endmost article from the tube to the track whenever the transfer finger is retracted.

ELIZABETH SOPHIA WEEKS HU'ICHINSON, Executria: of the Last Will and Testament of Philip H. Hutchinson, Deceased.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Cox Aug. 15, 1944 

